Going Backwards To Move Forwards
by Naitachal666
Summary: In some cases, going backwards a few steps is the only way to keep going forward. The fates of several are brought together by a curious method to instill a certain method of prevention. Will be Yaoi. Multiple pairings.


Welcome all to my first Bleach fanfiction. Certainly not my FIRST fanfiction, though. I am using my famous blend of both serious and lighthearted-ness to add depth to my characters that I have established in all of my other good fics. Hopefully, this will join the ranks of my better stories. First, warnings and a disclamer.

WARNING!: Oh, there will very _much_ be YAOI. Later. I'm not too much into rushing into relationships. A slow love and a slow loving tends to last longer. I won't reveal pairings yet until there is base enough that the readers can pick up on and have a good guess as to whom any pairings might consist of.

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Bleach or any of its characters. They are the property of Tite Kubo (and that one televison production company with the Japanese name that I can never remember). This idea/plot was develeped soley by myself, Naitachal666, and my nakama Death Beth. no, D.B. does not have an account by that name on FF. She does not write fiction for herself, but is commonly my muse.

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Going Backwards To Move Forwards

Fanning his face and occasionally using the folds of paper to hide his amused smirk, Urahara Kisuke watched Ichigo and Renji prepare to brawl it out in the dirt. The three of them were gathered in front of Urahara Shoten, Kisuke's rather black market soul reaper equipment shop. Of course, they were gathered in front of his shop for a reason, but the other two seemed to have forgotten completely what their reason for being there was. Kisuke had momentarily thought about calling them off and reminding the two of their mission, but there was time and their current point of argument was too entertaining to pass up. It seemed that they had moved on from bantering about Renji's choices in clothing and onto hair color. Smiling to himself, Kisuke turned his head at a particularly loud outburst.

"…Stupid redheads!" Ichigo's voice was loud and angry, particularly stressing the syllables in 'redhead'. Renji, Ichigo's current rival, pulled back with an indignant snort and opened his mouth wide in retort.

"Yeah?! Well carrot top _is_ a redhead, ya strawberry dumbass!" Renji's shouted growl was answered with the slide of metal as Ichigo pulled Zangetsu.

"Teme!"

"Baka!"

"Now, now." Kisuke's voice halted the other two in their tracks, Ichigo and Renji facing each other with their zanpoku-to almost crossed. Both redheads turned similar flat gazes on the behatted blond, and Urahara took a moment to wonder if the carrot top and the brilliant colored redhead were in any way related.

"Ichigo. Renji," Kisuke continued. "It is time to get started. The shinigami in front of Kisuke stared at him blankly for a few moment before lowering their zanpoku-to and stepping away from each other. Ichigo was the first to turn towards the door of Shoten, and Renji quickly followed. Flipping his fan shut, Urahara took up the rear and let the other two now silent individuals lead him to the underground training room.

Forgoing the ladder once he was halfway down, Ichigo let go and dropped the rest of the way down to land in the dirt with a soft thud. Kisuke shook his head in amusement and had to keep his hat from tumbling off when Renji took a header after Kurosaki. The Abarai landed in a crouch and smoothly rose to his feet to stand beside Ichigo. Each had put up their weapons on the way into Shoten and stood tall and proud as they waited for Kisuke to descend. When the blond finally reached the bottom of the lengthy ladder, he brushed imaginary lint from the shoulder of his black cloak and stepped forwards. Passing the two shinigami, the exile strolled to an area where two buttes of earth rose from the cavern floor. Turning around casually and fixing the two with his first serious expression of the day, Kisuke allowed himself to stare upwards with an unreadable look on his face as the light reached under the brim of his green-striped hat and lit the too-often unrevealed area around his eyes.

"Today…" Urahara allowed the word to drift into the utterly silent cavern with nary a further breath to carry it. "We have gathered here to witness….." Another pregnant pause. "…something that should have never been created." Still staring upwards, Urahara let a trace of emotion flicker across his features before tilting his head back down to hide his face in shadow. He let the silence hang for another moment before raising his face to its normal shadowed position and seeming to shake himself out of whatever reverie he had gotten caught up in.

"We must begin the preparations. Ichigo, stand here. Renji, take your stance here." Urahara indicated the positions with his folded fan, voice once again light and springy. With a look passed between them at the oddity, Renji and Ichigo went where indicated and settled to their knees when Kisuke bid them to.

"Now, draw your zanpoku-to and lie them crosswise as such." Kisuke drew a line in the air to indicate which way the blades should lie and which way the hilts should face. "Now, lie your closest hand on the hilt and slide the two blades until the points touch. Be very sure that they touch." Glancing at each other again, the two kneeling redheads followed the blond's instructions. The blond shopkeeper nodded once, and pulled Binihime from under his cloak and rested the but of the cane on the ground between his clogged feet.

"Remember young lads, that when you get there, no one will know who you are. Your status is nil. But most of all, you mustn't let yourselves interfere with the past any more than is necessary to carry out your given task. Now, I must begin the chant. I wish you luck, Renji, Ichigo." Kisuke lifted Binihime above his head and brought her down to thump the earth ominously, the first shouted word leaving his mouth and the air wavering about the two kneeling shinigami.

"Fluttering leaf falls quietly, water shimmers, the air is weak! Clouds loll backwards, birds take winged flight! Down is up! Up is down! The past is forward for two cast stones, the ripples spread across the lake, and time is taken in their embrace! Passage spell # 23! Reiten Kyoutenshi!" The air shimmered and Kisuke's last glimpse of Renji and Ichigo was of widened eyes through heavy dust.

When the dust settled, Kisuke was alone in the basement training room, the cheerily painted false sky mockingly bright overhead. "Take care." Without another word, the exile spun on his heel and left the room. They would return on the fourteenth day, alive or dead. Between times, there was nothing more that could be done that Kisuke could do. He just hoped that nothing changed too much in the real world.


End file.
